[Smbundy13]

so, I got my failing result from Audit on Feb 3rd. this is the second straight fail of this section and I feel that I failed solely because of my Simulations for the second straight time. I havent received my score report yet so I dont know for certain.

My question is this, how do yall prepare for simulations? I use Becker and have done all of the MCQs multiple times through, I did both “Final Exams” and did ok on them, also went through each chapter’s simulation… still nada..

any help is much appreciated as this is my last section and I have one more go at it in april before I lose FAR….

thanks alot.

FAR - 75 (Expires April 30, 2012)
BEC - 74,74,69,83
AUD - 72,65,70, 4/20 Last Score???
REG - 69,84

[Anonymous]

I am a firm believer that a person needs at least two review sources. If you choose Becker as a primary or CPA Excel or Roger or whatever, supplement with Wiley.

Having said that there is little that you can do to prepare short of knowing how to do the research well and then practicing a few for the formatting possibilities. I had a couple SIMS that were like “WHAT?”. I couldn't have done well on those two.

I firmly believe that for auditing, doing more than one test bank's MCQs helps id areas omitted by Becker or the other primaries and will help you get at information at other angles which will firm up your understanding of the material and make you SIM worthy.

In case I wasn't clear enough, use two sources for each section. It's the key, IMHO.

[Anonymous]

I used only one source – Wiley book and test bank and didn't do a single sim.

The first time I failed, because I used the book only and studied for 2.5 weeks.

If you know the audit material well enough, you'd do fine on the majority of sims. There may be a couple strange ones, for which you may want to utilize the research tab.

[Anonymous]

Do all the Sims in the Wiley book and you should be fine…

[makinthemagic]

work experience was my best study for audit

Bec 4/11/11 91
Aud 7/11/11 75
Reg 8/31/11 80
Far 5/24/11 86
Ethics - 98
California Licensed CPA
Illinois Registered CPA

[Tebowwwww]

There's no real way to study for Audit SIMS (or any sims in my opinion). I think the best way to study is to work the MCQs and understand the concepts as much as possible. The SIMS are simply a different format of question but they're all based on the same concepts. I used only Becker and failed because I didn't study enough the first time and wrecked it the second time because I put the time in understanding the concepts and repeating the MCQs to apply them.

REG (7/7/11) 75
FAR (7/28/11) 76
BEC (8/27/11) 81
AUD (10/15/11, 1/20/12) 63, 91

DONE!!!

[jenuno01]

By all means use the Research Tab! I had some weird SIMS for which I could've studied another 6 months and never would've known the answers. I pretty much looked up every single answer on the SIMS.

As far as how to study for them… I would say practice the SIMS on Wiley, and budget enough time for you to research the SIMS (I would say at least 2 hours). Good luck!

Class of 2012

[RedRage00]

I didn't study for SIMS at all for any of my exams. I learned the material through MCQs. You can't prepare for the SIMS imo.

I believe what helped me on AUD was that I had taken FAR already. I had 2 JE SIMS that I probably wouldn't have gotten correct if I didn't take FAR first.

My advice is to just pound out MCQs and make sure you are actually learning the material and not just going through the motions.

Oh, and I only used the Wiley book and online test bank.

Texas CPA
Licensed, March 2012

[Smbundy13]

thanks for the info folks.

FAR - 75 (Expires April 30, 2012)
BEC - 74,74,69,83
AUD - 72,65,70, 4/20 Last Score???
REG - 69,84

[Anonymous]

Gleim sells its sim software seperately. If you need more practice on sim, maybe it is a good choice.

[katiekanton]

For my AUD, I studied every single sim in my review material so much that I could answer them perfectly. My reasoning was that if one of them showed up on the exam, it would be easy points that might make the difference between a pass and a fail. I didn't see ANYTHING like the sims from my review material on the exam. In fact they were bizarrely different. I concluded that there's no way to prepare for sims other than know the material the MCQs are over. The auth lit tab is useful for some sims, but not at all for others.

I just sat for FAR and with the AUD experience in mind, I didn't even look at most sims in my material. I'd have to say overall the FAR ones were much easier, but on the other hand, from what I could tell from others who took AUD around the same time I did, I had the worst of the worst sims, not a single easy one in the bunch. I think you just prepare as best you can, and then it's the luck of the draw what you actually see. I wouldn't stress too much practicing sims in your review material, but the suggestion to KNOW another review material's MCQs is a good one, especially since FAR is at stake. Good luck!

AUD - 88
FAR - 90
REG - 85
BEC - 88

[Author]

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